Opinion: Obamacare's original sin

President Barack Obama made two big promises during his first term that have tied his economic agenda in a straitjacket. One was his mostly-kept pledge not to raise taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year -- that is, 98 percent of Americans. The other was his promise about health care reform: "If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan." The latter pledge forced Obama try to do two things at once: keep employer-based coverage for the 45 percent of Americans who have it, while getting coverage to the 17 percent of Americans who don't have any at all.